Great article: 'Obama and the Age of Unreason'

[truthspeak]

I cannot imagine a worse job than being President of these Untied States in these most trying of times. President Barack Obama has been under siege from every side for the entirety of his time in office. The poor guy just cannot do anything right. Passing health care legislation, wrestling 25 billion out of BP, turning around the auto industry and his many other accomplishments are simply ignored. The good is simply not good enough. In spite of his many courageous acts the common wisdom prevails that he is not tough, not all up in the Kool-Aid of the opposition. A notion complicated by the fact that those who oppose him are often on his home team.

Not tough enough? The guy is made of steel. Governing this wild kingdom of a nation is like a never ending episode of Survivor. Every week we send our leader into a shark tank with a bucket of bloody mackerel around his neck. Then when by some miracle he manages to come back alive with enough fish to feed the team we scream: "What? No tuna? No orange roughy?" "Is that the best you can do"? We moan, we wail, we shake our fists!! "Should a gave those sharks a what for!!" We cry. Then we bait him up again and send him back into the tank.

The recent hand wringing over the temporary tax cut deal is a true case in point. The president does not preside over only like minded citizens. He must govern for us all. I agree with Bernie Sanders on principle, but I applaud the president's deft avoidance of a show down in crazy town. A whole lot of folks most pointedly do not agree with Mr. Sanders or with me for that matter as the last election made exceedingly clear. Obama saved the bacon of the unemployed, assured tax credits for children and college students and prevented the middle class from receiving a bill for 3,000.00 on January 1. We seem to think that he has some kind of magic wand that he is refusing to wave. There just simply is no such thing. He is the president not the King and God help him. Really I mean that, God ... please help him.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beth-broderick/obama-and-the-age-of-unre_b_796258.html

[jaxx]

1. K&R

Nice to see someone stand up for the President instead of beating him down like 98% of the threads on here tonight.

[rury]

35. +1,0000000,0000000000000

[FrenchieCat]

2. There's been some discussions on this.......

1.Transference: It's a term in psychology referring to the tendency of a person so scarred from a traumatic event or abuser that they "transfer" their anger onto another person, usually an ally who is the easiest to reach. These self-professed liberals/progressives have been whiplashed from the capacity of Wingnuts to seemingly get their way ALL the time, and never facing consequences for their vile behavior. Their anger is a direct barometer to their sense of ideological DEFEAT. Bottom line: In order fro them to feel defeated, it means they never first defined VICTORY on their own terms, but the wingnuts'. So their cry is "why has Pres. Obama not brought VICTORY on wingnut terms?.

2. Mercenary incentive: Immediately after the 2008 elections, David Sirota, Jane Hamsher, Cenk Uyger and others loudly opined about how they were going to deal with the likely shortfall in cyber traffic and ad-click revenues with a President in office from their ideological ranks. Their behavior shows the fruits of the Faustian bargain they struck: i.e. to make money as contrarians. They have no actual commitment to any policy cause. Notice their reactions are always predictable no matter what policy issue is on the table. No sane person remains a ONE NOTE track on every single issue in their lives. Their one chorus tells us all there is to know about their motives.

3. The tweeterization of News: More importantly how is it the same people appear as expert pundits on EVERY single policy debate? It used to be that real journalists, no matter how brilliant they are as generalists, CANNOT claim to have disciplinary expertise in more than one or two areas. Yet these fauxgressives know every thing? The foreign media truly laughs at the total lack of serious expertise in American media reportage. BBC invites people who actually know the technical details of policy to talk about said policy. Here we are being "informed" by idiots. This is anti-intellectualism, of the left wing variety, no different from the right wing's.

4. Exotic ideas about Black Civil Rights Struggles: The fauxgressives learned nothing other than the sanitized Cliff's Notes versions of the civil rights struggles of minorities. They never grasped the true nature of those struggles as "PAINFULLY SLOW" and often "OBSTACLE RIDDEN" processes that often took one step forward to three steps backward. Heck they have no idea how long the protests against the Vietnam war took. So it is very easy for them to be keyboard commandos. They wanted a time-warped version of the black and white newsreels they've seen on PBS about struggle, to OBSERVE from behind the safety of their keyboards. In other words they wanted the REVOLUTION TWEETED in 140 CHARACTERS, with a Gil-Scot Heron Swagga. So if they are not getting it, then Pres. Obama must be no good.

5. They need a Janitorial Presidency: Overt and residual features of White privilege. Some of these folks remain willfully or inadvertently unaware of the baked-in cosmology of white privilege. It manifests itself in the expectations you mention. To them a black person cannot be average. Either they are superhuman or mediocre, or both. Initially they imagined candidate Obama to be "magical', just like in the movies or in sports. But when they now take a closer look at the complex human being that he is with flaws, their new default posture is that he must be mediocre.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2010/12/tax-compromise-president-obama-had-your.html

[truthspeak]

3. Nice!

yup this Obama shit is a lot deeper than people realize. But I suppose having the first black president will naturally make things deep. lol

[Safetykitten]

4. Wait till we get the first gay one.

[Union Scribe]

7. Oh, good. More race-based attacks on progressive critics

Because there just haven't been enough of those...

[JamesA1102]

17. Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2 nt

[Union Scribe]

30. Please learn the correct meaning of that line

I learned this in high school and it irritates me when people so abuse the Bard: "protest" did not mean "deny" as in "you're denying it so it must be true" (which is, of course, a ridiculously dumb notion). It meant "swear" or "affirm"--Gertrude is saying that the affirmations, not denials, are too strenuous to be credible. If you had read the passage instead of look it up with the sole intent of calling anyone who dislikes being called a racist a racist, then you'd have known that already.

[JamesA1102]

31. Please click the link

http://tinyurl.com/2fl6bco

[Union Scribe]

32. I don't click masked links.

And unless it's a link to you apologizing for lazily calling people racists I'm not interested.

[JamesA1102]

33. Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 2 nt

[political_Dem]

8. Brilliant list. Thank you, Frenchie.

Instead of the naysayers attacking this list, they should read it and examine their own attitudes in this situation. Race is an aspect of identity. Some of us do not have the luxury of making our skin color "invisible". Even moreso, there are a number of people who have to bear the brunt of racism on a daily basis all the which witnessing the nonchalance against such corrosive, bigoted attitudes in the media as well as from others who are not as culturally enlightened. The POTUS is not immune to experiencing situations related to race and racism as he goes about his life--especially if some are blanketed as a form of criticism.


The full experiences of people of color should be respected and acknowledged. The market of determining what or who is racist does not solely belong to the dominant culture. It does not exist in the minds of people of color nor the folks who are sensitive to our plight. Determining whether an incident is race-related or racist does not lessen an argument. Talking about race or racism does not render a person less intelligent. Discussing race and racism in this country should never be ignored because our country is intimately affected by it.

All in all, people of color reserve the right to determine whether an incident is racist or not on our own term without ridicule. It is not playing the race card to discuss these matters.

As people of color, we deserve every right to examine the phenomenon of what is happening to Mr. Obama on our own terms without being bullied into silence. After all, the hatred that is heaped upon the CIC, eventually trickles down to us no matter how many folks play it off.

[Empowerer]

21. Thank you!

So eloquent!

[political_Dem]

26. You are so welcome. :)

I also wanted to tell you that your other posts and threads are not only erudite, but meticulous in their approach. Keep on keeping on.

[Number23]

27. PD, that was beautiful.

:applause:

The market of determining what or who is racist does not solely belong to the dominant culture.

Brilliant.

[political_Dem]

36. Thank you very much, Number 23.

It comes from the fact that all of our experiences count--especially if it has to do with culture and identity. Our voices, ideas and observations matter--especially now. It is highly offensive that anyone would blatantly tell a person belonging to a culture or race who has experienced hardships, discrimination and persecution that their experiences are imbecilic, unintelligent, or bizarre. Such an act stems from a lack of unawareness and nonexistent empathy.

Therefore, it is truly meaningful to receive positive acknowledgment when dealing with difficult, but pertinent topics such as this one. :hug:

[jaysunb]

39. Excellent !

:thumbsup:

[political_Dem]

40. Thank you very much.

I just think that this is high time that all experiences should be included in trying to discern what to make of this chaotic time in history.

[JamesA1102]

16. That's Great

You should top post this one.

[Empowerer]

20. Hear hear!

[JamesA1102]

5. HuffPo ran a positive article on the President???

I wonder how that slipped past the editors.

[Number23]

9. I was just about to say the same thing!

:wow: :spray: :wow:

[CakeGrrl]

6. K/R

I'm sure most any politician would never admit it, but I'll bet a lot of them on both sides of the aisle know they sure as hell wouldn't or couldn't deal with it as well as he has.

And the armchair quarterbacks wouldn't last a month - nah, not even a week - if they had to govern above the kind of criticism they shovel out.

[Skittles]

10. the magic wand thing again

:rofl:

[Clio the Leo]

11. kick nt

[JamesA1102]

12. Kick!

[Phx_Dem]

13. To the point! K&R

[Greybnk48]

14. Thanks. I posted this on Facebook. n/t

[treestar]

15. Magic wand he is refusing to wave, exactly!

Mention we don't have the PO due to Lieberman and all you get is hysterical ranting about magical powers over Lieberman and threats that Obama should have made to him, etc. All without knowledge of the consequences. Just stupid ranting.

[whosinpower]

18. Overwhelmingly public support

Gave President Obama and the democrats control of both the house and the Senate. They had the nation behind them. They had majority control. It was as if the President was given a titanium chain mail suit to wear when he went swimming with the sharks.....but he cast it away, in favour of throwing on that smelling mackeral necklace and hoped that the sharks would love him for it and not bite....too hard.

Obama wanted to address health care - and the nation wanted him to as well. Overwhelming support for a public plan, even a buy in to the medicare plan - and Obama took off that titanium suit of public support and swam with the sharks. What did America get - now it is MANDATED THAT YOU MUST BUY PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE WHETHER YOU CAN AFFORD IT OR NOT. Did rates go down - nope. Did the burdgeoning book that made up the bill address costs? nope. Pelosi even passed a house bill that included a public plan as a means to add competition to control costs - and OBAMA SWEPT IT QUICKLY AWAY.

That cost the democrats their majority in the house, and almost the senate as well. The titanium suit dissappeared. So when the sharks bite big hulking chunks out of Obama - stop blaming the liberals. He was the one to throw on that mackeral necklace. He was the one who decided that democratic principles are not as VALUABLE AS REPUBLICAN ONES. He was the one who allowed the narrative of tax cuts being somehow a positive thing for an economy bloated in deficits, and knowing full well that tax cuts never increased job growth. He was the one who jerrymandered that the social security payroll tax holiday as somehow being a democratic goal.

He had his titanium suit. The nation gave it to him proudly. He wanted to swim naked instead.

[truthspeak]

22. Here's your critical mistake about "support"...

Yes he indeed have support but it was for fixing the ECONOMY. He took a huge (but necessary) gamble of going after health care but the public didn't overwhelmingly care about that AT THAT MOMENT...thats why it was so easy for the repubs to turn public perception on that because the economy in the voters' minds was issue NUMBER ONE.

It would be like Bush making Medicare a priority in 2002 when the main issue was terrorism/war.

[whosinpower]

24. Not so fast Mikey

Because everyone - even the CBO all agreed that a public plan would reduce premium costs - and that my dear truthspeak - EFFECTIVELY FIXES SOME OF THE ECONOMIC WOES THAT FACE AMERICANS. Obama eliminated it - cut it out - did not want to talk about. He could have - and the nation would have given the democrats more seats than ever - but the narrative was lost....BECAUSE OBAMA CHOSE TO DO A BACKROOM DEAL BEFORE THE BILL WAS EVEN WRITTEN, and he promised certain groups that a public option would be off the table. Single payer advocates were not even allowed at the table.....not even allowed.

You know it as well as I. That my dear friend is swimming naked with the sharks......

So do not be surprised that the democrats lost seats. The public wanted a way to lower the cost of healthcare. They wanted a choice - at least an option. They were denied that, and given a law that forces them to buy private insurance whether they can afford it or not. It was crammed down with no way to lower costs.....only slow the increase a bit.

But yeah - go ahead and give the republican talking points credence. Surely they know better than 85 percent of Americans what is best. Just like these tax cuts....keep talking about them without even discussing better smarter more intelligent ways to use almost 1 trillion dollars.....keep letting the republicans control the message and see what happens to democrats in 2012. And whatever that happens to be - don't bother to blame liberal principles.....apparently they are worthless.

[truthspeak]

28. To borrow the GOP phrase..."you still don't get it"

Voters didn't care about what HCR could do for the future...they were thinking about getting jobs/stability RIGHT NOW. The whole debate of health care reform is a worthy one...but its all about timing and having a long robust debate and "bully pulpiting" to get it passed. AT THAT TIME, it was bad for Obama because voters were more worried about putting food on the table and keeping their homes to be really galvanized by the health care debate. Especially the longer it dragged on. (This is not a GOP talking point...its reality)

Also consider that the CBO projections for implementing HCR with the public option was over a trillion dollars which PISSED voters off even more because of the stimulus and bailouts a few months prior. So repubs could easily twist that and say "there goes those tax and spend liberals".

OPTICALLY it was a bad move for a Obama and his "bully pulpit" was limited on this issue.

MOST IMPORTANT POINT: The thing simply did not have the overall Senate support to pass AT ALL. And no amount of "arm twisting" would've changed that.

[ProudDad]

38. He didn't do SHIT about "the economy" other than continue the bush policies...

:puke:

THAT'S WHY THE DEMS ARE LOSING!!!

[madamesilverspurs]

19. K & R n/t

[Kaylee]

23. Excellent article and discussion. K and R. nt

[wndycty]

25. K&R

:kick:

[tweeternik]

29. Agreed! Thanks for posting, truthspeak! n/t

[Bluerthanblue]

34. it is a great article- thanks for

posting it!

K&R

[jaysunb]

37. k&r

w/ the rec's still at 0. Speaks much....:evilfrown: